And wonder that two human beings could live through trauma of that magnitude and not be bitter or timid but instead huge-hearted, generous and tender.
Young British soldiers have been killing people, directly or indirectly, and have lived through the trauma of seeing friends and comrades die beside them.
That's why even people like Virginia and me, who have lived through the trauma of marriages that have failed, want to be part of this very special, but sadly still exclusive, club.
"So many children had lived through terrible trauma in the immediate postwar years in Britain," he writes, "that it was quite common to come across deeply confused young people.
Pond has lived through significant trauma, but music has helped him to heal mentally, too: "I think the turning point for me was when I started to play music again.
Such immersion of course is aimed less at veterans than at visitors who have not lived through the trauma, onlookers for whom the chill air of the gallery devoted to the battle at Toktong Pass during the Korean War or the humid haze of a siege on Hill 881 South in Vietnam (into which visitors descend from the thumping ramp of a real CH-46 helicopter fuselage) is a curious experience.
African elephants that have lived through the trauma of a cull or selected killing of their kin may look normal enough to the casual observer, but socially they are a mess.
Sometimes, after someone has died or we have lived through a trauma of some kind, we, for a time, crack through the window of the sacred.
Despite of the serious topics, there's plenty of room for fun and entertainment -- something welcomed by all the children, but especially those who had lived through repeated trauma.
She had lived through numerous traumas during the war in Japan (bombing, rape, losing her mother and father) and had lived a life of "quiet desperation".
